A Timeline Of Kanye West’s Most Outrageous Moments

Here’s a comprehensive, and somewhat detailed, chronologically organized list examining the chaotic, downward spiral of one of music’s biggest stars. Do note that there are a few instances that felt less important and thus were left off the list, but it’s the “good stuff” that you’re really looking for isn’t it?

In November 2004, he threw a hissy fit and stormed out of the American Music Awards after losing Best New Artist to Gretchen Wilson. He told the press, “I felt like I was robbed. I was the best new artist this year!”

In September of 2005, he made the now infamous statement, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” while appearing on live television for a telethon benefiting victims of Hurricane Katrina. His co-host at the time was Austin Powers himself, Canadian Mike Myers, and the look on Mike’s face after Kanye uttered those immortal words? Priceless.

In February of 2006, Kanye graced everyone by appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone while dressed as Jesus.

In November 2006, Kanye crashed the stage at the MTV Europe Music Awards when he lost Best Video to Justice Vs. Simian and got pretty vocal on the mic.

September of 2007 saw Mr. West lose his cool at another awards show when he lost all 5 MTV VMA’s he was nominated for and when he didn’t get scheduled to perform on the main stage, he lost his cool and exclaimed, “I’ll never return to MTV again!” Sadly, he would.

In September of 2008, Kanye was charged with vandalism. There was an altercation with two paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport where cameras were damaged.

This next incident might be the one that comes to mind for most of us when the term “Krazy Kanye” is used. In September 2009, West crashed the stage at the MTV awards while Taylor Swift was giving her acceptance speech for best female music video with the line, “I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!”

In July of 2010, he went on the most epic of Twitter rants where he proceeded to spew out a business plan for his creative content company DONDA. The rant went on for a staggering 80+ tweets. Yeah.

In November of 2010, West got into a heated conversation with the Today Show’s Matt Lauer while discussing his outburst during the Katrina relief telethon. His conversation got so amped that he ended up calling off the performance and leaving the studio. The interview is pretty intense, but you can watch the whole thing here.

In August of 2011, Kanye was at the Big Chill Film Festival in the UK where he stood on stage and said the following, “I walk through the hotel and I walk down the street, and people look at me like I’m f****** insane, like I’m Hitler!”

October 2013 saw Kanye and a Jesus lookalike appear on stage during a show at Seattle’s Key Arena while on his Yeezus tour.

In November of 2013, Kanye sparked outrage when he was seen wearing some clothes from his fashion line that had the Confederate flag on them.

In February 2015, Yeezus crashed the stage again at the Grammys to insert himself into Beck’s ‘Album of the Year’ acceptance speech. He did, however, apologize.

In September 2015, during show in Sydney, he demanded a fan in the audience get on his feet. The fan was in a wheelchair.

In February of 2016, Kanye once again slighted Taylor Swift, but this time in one of his songs from the album, The Life of Pablo. In the song, Famous, he said, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous!”

On Monday, November 14, 2016, news emerged that Kanye was in talks with Will Ferrell to develop a biopic about his life.

Three days later, on Thursday, November 17, 2016, Kanye was performing on stage in San Jose when he stopped his show and told the crowd that he would have voted for Trump, if he actually casted a vote.

Two days later at a show in Sacramento on Saturday, November 19th, 2016, Kanye went on, what very well might be, his most epic and outrageous rant to date. He decided to throw shade at Beyonce because of statements she had reportedly made regarding her not wanting to perform at the MTV VMAs if she didn’t win ‘Video of the Year’ over him and Drake. He then practically begged Jay-z to get ahold of him ASAP. Kanye only performed three songs that night.

Snoop Dogg was very vocal about his feeling towards Kanye’s latest string of outbursts by posting his reactions on Instagram. You can watch snoops reaction to the rant here.

On Sunday, November 20th, 2016, Kanye posted 99 blurry pictures of fashion pieces to his Instagram feed. Other than the spree of posts, his feed is empty except for a post from early September that was nothing but a screenshot of a cab from Total Recall. He’s got 1.9 million followers and does not follow a single person, not even his wife Kim Kardashian. What’s up with that?

Now here we are, present day, and the ever spiraling Kanye has seemed to reach the point of no return. Its come to light that Kanye has been hospitalized citing “exhaustion and dehydration,” but some sources say it was nothing more than a full-blown, mental breakdown with causes (again according to sources) ranging from anxiety, stress, and paranoia. The 39-year old rapper, fashion designer, and entrepreneur is currently under the care of doctors at UCLA Medical Center and has officially canceled the remaining shows for the St. Pablo Tour.

And that’s that. Hopefully Kanye can get back to doing what he does best – creating amazing music. We’re wishing you all the best Mr. West. Get well soon.

Ben hails from Vancouver and is an avid snowboarder whose secret passion is scrapbooking. When he's not too busy gluing memories on paper, he likes to read and write about the exciting world of sports. Besides having fun in the water or working out at the gym, he also enjoys learning new things about fitness, health, and nutrition.